Paradox Development Studio, the internal developer at Paradox Interactive responsible for many of the company's grand strategy hits, has "split into three distinct studios." The change happened earlier this year and was announced yesterday in a post on the Paradox forum.
Each of the three studios is committed to a particular Paradox series, but notably Imperator: Rome isn't among them. Also notable: one of them is making a new game which will be announced next month.
]]>It's trite but often true: Paradox strategy games are ropey at launch, with hints of promise that may or may not be realised over the next few years of free updates and paid expansions. Such was the case with Imperator: Rome, the 2019 grand strategy game set in the founding years of the Roman Empire. Bit shallow but promising, and already expanded in a few patches. Now today has brought the launch of big ol' Update 2.0 plus a new paid DLC.
]]>Strategy games is an enormous genre in PC gaming, with real-time, turn-based, 4X and tactics games all flying the same flag to stake their claim as the one true best strategy game. Our list of the best strategy games on PC covers the lot of them. We like to take a broad view here at RPS, and every game listed below is something we firmly believe that you could love and play today. You'll find 30-year-old classics nestled right up against recent favourites here, so whether you're to the genre or want to dig deep for some hidden gems, we've got you covered. Here are our 50 best strategy games for 2023.
]]>When Imperator: Rome was released in April this year, I really enjoyed it. My colleague Ghoastus absolutely loved it. To be honest, both of us were happy with it as it was. Nevertheless, in response to a good deal of player roaring on launch, Paradox have been working hell for leather to rebuild whole sections of the game, and after two big free patches, we're now looking down the barrel of a third before the end of the year - along with a content pack (also free) about the Punic Wars.
As of September's 1.2 "Cicero" patch, The Monarch Power resource, which many people referred to as "mana", is gone. Instant population upgrades are gone. Sad times as your boats have nothing to do: also gone. Despite retaining everything I liked about it in the first place, it's a wildly different experience now - and patch 1.3, "Livy" is going to shake it up even more. The headline change is the new mission system, which introduces both scripted objectives for Rome and Carthage as part of the Punic pack, and procedurally generated missions for everyone else. But there's a whole amphora full of other improvements too, including a revamped character experience system, and new tactical gameplay which - among other things - includes finding dinner for elephants. And once again, like bread hurled from a tribune's balcony, it's all for free.
]]>On the night of Friday 30th August, at PAX West in Seattle, RPS will raise the dead. Using techniques too dreadful to comprehend, we shall puncture the mortal veil like a sheet of wet tissue paper, and drag something back from the other side. That spirit will be Ghoastus, the Roman Ghost: our first fully spectral staff writer, and the site’s occasional historical strategy correspondent. He’s erudite, he’s wise, and he’s in no way a person draped in a sheet and a replica centurion’s helmet.
Ghoastus will be interviewing a panel of strategy gaming’s leading lights: Ed Beach, lead designer for Civilization VI; Adam Isgreen, creative director for the Age of Empires series; Peter Nicholson, content designer for Imperator: Rome; Jeff Spock, narrative director of Amplitude's just-announced historical 4X Humankind; and Nicholas Tannahill from Stronghold developers Firefly. From within his circle of chalked wards, Ghoastus will ask them how they mix reality with fiction when making historical games, and how they’ve kept well-loved franchises fresh over the years.
]]>Haha, that was funny last week wasn't it! Remember how we did that whole bit where I had left RPS, but then I was still stuck writing Steam Charts? Heh, they do some good goofs at this site. Anyway, let's... [looks straight into camera]
]]>For me, one of the perennial pleasures in PC gaming is clicking ‘new game’ on a fresh Paradox grand strategy game, and having that big ol’ map unrolled before me, freighted with promise and overwhelming complexity.
If you’ve not played one of these before - and for all its glories, Imperator: Rome is very much an iteration of the formula established by Europa Universalis in 2000 - the premise of the game is as simple as playing it isn’t: you’re presented with a map of the world at a given point in history, where you can browse every single discrete political entity that existed in that moment, before choosing one to pilot onwards through time.
]]>We would never do anything to hurt you. Our loyalty is beyond dispute. That’s just how trustworthy we are on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. If anyone is the spy here, it’s you. I don’t even recognise you. Have you been to this website before? You look nervous. Maybe you’re hiding something. Maybe you’re planning to stab us all in the back when we’re not looking. Traitor! Traitor! Everybody look at the traitor and not over here, at our treachery-filled podcast.
]]>Rome wasn't built in a day, but in launching under a year from its announcement Imperator: Rome is making pretty good time. Paradox Interactive today announced a release date for their grand historical strategy game - April 25th. Perhaps missing a trick not launching it on March 15th, but it'll have to do. Paradox reckon this should be a little easier to get into than some of their past games. They aim to strike a balance between the character-driven antics of Crusader Kings 2 and the grand military campaigning of Europa Universalis IV. See the release date trailer below.
]]>Bugger me, Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy games are a lot, right? If I could put that even more in bold, I would have fattened up like a sacrificial pig before god-appeasing slaughter, because they really are.
My experience with Crusader Kings II, for example, mainly involved me staring at menus for half an hour then crushing half a pack of ibuprofen into a fine powder, mixing it into a hot chocolate, and cradling it while rocking back and forth in a corner for the evening. I am, to put it lightly, not a bountiful well of expertise when it comes to these devilishly complex map-painters. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find that, about four hours into Imperator: Rome, the thing had got its wreath-decorated hooks well and truly into me.
]]>I'm no history buff, but I know an awful lot of 'em. When I listen to my friends enthuse about what famous generals liked best on their toast, I'm thinking about how my favourite memories of Paradox games have been formed by escaping stuffy old history and pretending to be a Lannister.
Luckily for me, Paradox are building tools that will make it much easier for modders to replace carefully modelled authenticity with fictional gubbins - or just twiddle with historical simulations, whatever floats your trireme. Those tools are part of a new engine what will make everything run better, look nicer and sound snazzier, but will also let people mod games while they're running. To some extent.
]]>Watching all of Imperator: Rome’s wars, trade deals and politicking play out is a lot like viewing a highlight reel of Paradox’s current generation of grand strategy epics. The upcoming strategy game has Crusader King 2’s detailed characters, Europa Universalis 4’s broad national scope, Victoria 2’s demographics and even Hearts of Iron 4’s wargame sensibilities, all transposed to the world of antiquity. It's the latter that stands out the most, however. Imperator: Rome is a game of big wars.
]]>When Paradox unveiled the map for its latest grand strategy romp, Imperator: Rome, I don’t mind admitting that I made an involuntary noise that normally only comes out of me when I’m biting into something delicious and unhealthy. It is excellent map porn. Zoomed out, it’s clean and no-nonsense, but when you narrow your focus, it explodes with colour and detail, particularly on the coast, where golden beaches hit seas gorgeous enough that you’ll want to lap them up. Europa Universalis looks drab in comparison.
It makes an excellent first impression, but it doesn’t have many opportunities to make a second one. While Imperator is due out in 2019, the build I got to see is still so early on that, were I to get a glimpse of any other corner of the map, I’d only see barren wastelands waiting for the touch of an artist.
]]>I think we've all been there. You've centralized power by taking over most of the known world. You're feeling pretty chill about your choices and how you've bent the continent to your iron will. That's when some of your buddies are like "nah brah" and you get super-stabbed to death. Not chill. Not chill at all. Well, now you can bring home all the fun of this highly relatable situation, via Paradox Interactive's upcoming grand strategy title Imperator: Rome.
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